1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a service search device and method, and more particularly, to a service search device and method for searching for an available service between devices without forming a network between such devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Devices in a short-range communication network search for the functions available on other devices. To search for a device and its supportable service function information, search protocols of Layer 3 or higher in the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) 7 Layer have been used. An example of such a search, service search process in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, which are short-range communication protocols, will be described below.
To search for a service based on the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth protocols, two or more devices first form a network by connecting with one another. For example, a network is formed by directly connecting a smartphone to another smartphone, a laptop computer to a mouse, or a tablet Personal Computer (PC) to a printer. A network can also be formed by connecting a device to a nearby device, such as a digital camera, an MP3 player, a game console, and a TV.
Thus, if a user wants to search for a service using a user device that is not a part of a network, the user device must join a previously formed network or form a new network with the other devices. To this end, the user device must perform a series of processes including searching for an already formed network and joining the already formed network. Moreover, in the case of a Basic Service Set (BSS) of Wi-Fi, the user device must join the network via a connection with an Access Point (AP).
As such, the user device does not search for an available service until it obtains information regarding devices in a network after forming a new network or after joining an existing network.
As described above, the process of determining a service supportable by a device starts after a connection of two layers, such as PHYsical (PHY) and MAC layers, to the device is set in advance. If it is determined that the device does not satisfy a user's service requirements, the user needs to disconnect the previously established two-layer connection to the device, and make another two-layer connection to another device to search for a service supportable by another device.
As such, this mechanism in which all devices are connected via peer-to-peer protocols to one another in the PHY and MAC layers without an AP is inefficient. Specifically, when the number of devices in a network is in the hundreds, this connection setup process results in large overhead.
Thus, a method capable of searching for a service supportable by a device without forming a new network is required to increase network efficiency and improve the user experience.